What is the Landlord and Tenant Board?
The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) is a provincial tribunal which has sole jurisdiction over landlord-tenant disputes in Ontario. In 1998 the Conservative government of Mike Harris enacted the Tenant Protection Act (since replaced by the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006) which along with other pro-landlord reforms, established the LTB and removed landlord-tenant disputes from the court system. In Ontario, a landlord cannot evict a tenant by legal means without a hearing before the LTB. Up until March 2020, the LTB conducted most of its hearings in person, at locations across the province, with some exceptional matters being conducted in writing or via teleconference for remote locations.
The vast majority of cases at the LTB are landlords’ applications to evict tenants and most evictions are for unpaid rent. In practical terms, the LTB oversees landlords’ power to decide who in society should be denied housing. Legally, the LTB must consider the circumstances of the tenant in deciding whether to order eviction or to grant relief from eviction. In practice, however, the LTB has considered tenants who are a day late or a dollar short to be deserving of removal from their homes. Tenants currently have very little defence against eviction after the Ontario government passed Bill 184 in July 2020, which made it even easier for landlords to evict tenants who face financial difficulties.
What has the LTB been doing through the pandemic?
Hearings at the LTB are no longer heard in person, but by video and teleconference. This is a change in procedure which, at this time, appears to be permanent moving forward. This shift to video and teleconference has had a devastating impact on tenants in Toronto without stable hardware or Internet access, and to tenants who face barriers related to language or accessibility. Read testimonials here.
Tenants have no say in what date their matter is scheduled for, or what time it will be heard on that day. At the LTB, tenants can expect to be placed into ‘blocks’ of 2.5 hours which can include up to a dozen other tenants who are also facing eviction, as well as the landlords and any representatives tenants or landlords have brought with them. Matters are not heard by judges, but rather adjudicators (also called Members)—provincial appointments which include people with legal and non-legal backgrounds. Who are these adjudicators?
Tenants in Ontario may remember Premier Doug Ford’s pledge at Queen’s Park on March 20, 2020: “We have to make sure that we take care of the people and I’ll do whatever it takes to take care of the people of Ontario. I’ll be making sure I have their back—if they can’t pay rent, they aren’t going to be evicted.” In those same weeks, the LTB processed 668 applications to evict tenants for unpaid rent from March 17 to 31. It went on to process 1,407 applications in April; 1,711 in May; 1,415 in June; 1,414 in July; 1,708 in August, after the moratorium ended.
On November 12, 2020, the LTB announced it was “shifting resources to prioritize scheduling hearings” for the tens of thousands of eviction applications made by landlords since the shutdown in March 2020. In November and December, the LTB held nearly 12,000 online eviction hearings via Microsoft Teams video conferences. The LTB scheduled online hearings in what it called “express hearing blocks.” Multiple express eviction blocks were scheduled concurrently in different video rooms, five days a week.
Who are these adjudicators?
Current appointed adjudicators of the LTB include landlords, past and present employees of landlords, and supporters of the landlord lobby. Adjudicators are appointed by the province to adjudicate the LTB, and include people with legal and non-legal backgrounds.
When Doug Ford got into office, his government decided not to hire new adjudicators and let the LTB fall into even further disarray through attrition. Ford manufactured a crisis at the LTB in order to justify a spate of political appointees as adjudicators and the mass evictions of tenants. This manufactured crisis provided political cover for Bill 184 which the government claimed would make the LTB more efficient and would clear the backlog by speeding up evictions. Then, under cover of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in preparation for its coming “eviction blitz,” the government appointment an unprecedented number of adjudicators in the spring and summer of 2020. Another 39 full-time adjudicators and 35 part-time adjudicators were hired in November 2020 to hear LTB matters.
I thought there was an eviction freeze in Ontario?
On March 19, 2020, the Ontario Superior Court issued an order suspending residential evictions and as a result of the COVID-19 public-health crisis. At that time, the LTB suspended hearings related to eviction applications unless the matter related to an urgent issue such as an illegal act or a serious impairment of safety. These urgent matters were also no longer heard in person, but rather via video and teleconference—a change in procedure which, at this time, appears to be permanent moving forward. On August 1, 2020, the LTB resumed hearing all types of applications, including those related to evictions for rent arrears. Again, all hearings are done by video and teleconference.
On January 13, 2021, the Government of Ontario made a regulation (O. Reg. 13/21) which says that the Sheriff cannot enforce an LTB eviction order unless the order specifically asks the Sheriff to expedite the eviction (typically only done in situations where the eviction application relates to allegations of criminal or violent conduct). Unlike the LTB’s procedures in March through August 2020, however, this time around the LTB has made the decision to continue to hold eviction hearings. Every day, across the province, working-class people are brought before the LTB and given sometimes as little as a few minutes to try and stop the LTB from evicting them from their home. We do not know when the Sheriff will resume evictions. However, when they do, it is clear there will be a significant number of tenants facing evictions as a result of the LTB continuing to hold these hearings.
What has been happening to tenants with difficulties accessing a hearing?
In short: Tenants having difficulty accessing their hearing have been getting evicted. The LTB’s violations of fair process have been so severe that in October 2020, legal clinics across Ontario “alarmed by multiple aspects of Landlord and Tenant Board (“LTB”) operations during COVID-19 and the impact on access to justice” endorsed a report calling for “urgent reforms.”
If a tenant is unable to attend their hearing, the adjudicator can issue an eviction order based on the landlord’s story alone. In past months, this has caused serious harm to countless tenants who were not notified of hearings, notified on short notice, and/or could not access their hearings due to barriers or emergencies. At some hearings, observers have raised concerns regarding a tenant’s difficulties accessing the hearing, only to have the adjudicator issue dismiss these issues and order a quick eviction. By contrast, some adjudicators have been observed extending sympathy to landlords in a manner not consistently given to tenants. Adjudicators have been seen waiting to accommodate the landlord’s delayed arrival, going on break to give them extra time and even adjourning cases citing the landlord’s absence.
Notice of hearings have frequently failed to reach tenants as well as legal clinics. Many tenants have reported not receiving notice of their hearings whatsoever, and have only become aware that a hearing was held when they received a notice from the sheriff advising them they will be forcibly removed from their home. Investigations and countless anecdotes tell of missed or nearly missed notices, and emergencies—including a husband’s death the night before a hearing—have been ignored in favour of eviction orders.
With hearings during the COVID-19 public health crisis being held almost exclusively via video and teleconference, the LTB has also made a new rule requiring parties to send all their evidence to each other and to the LTB five days before the hearing. In some cases, where tenants receive notice of their hearing only one or two days before the actual date, this is impossible. Where a tenant fails to provide their evidence five days beforehand, the adjudicator can decide to refuse to allow a tenant to use any of it to defend against losing their home.
Tenants have no say in what date their matter is scheduled for, or what time it will be heard. Nor can the tenant request to reschedule the matter through the LTB without first getting their landlord’s consent—which the landlord is generally unwilling to give, and has no incentive to give since the tenant’s absence allows the adjudicator to issue an eviction order based on the landlord’s story alone. While it is possible for the tenant to request an adjournment at the hearing, watchdogs have reported that adjudicator have been more hesitant to grant an adjournment through the pandemic than they were before the pandemic.